From the book
Symposium
Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordThe adverb marks suddenness, not necessarily an unprepared event or a supernatural intervention.
- In the SymposiumThe sight promised in Diotima’s ascent is sudden only after ordered guidance, learning, and previous toil.
- In this editionThe supplied edition calls attention to the recurrence.
- A place to readPreparation precedes sudden vision.
Meaning
The adverb marks suddenness, not necessarily an unprepared event or a supernatural intervention.
Use in the book
The sight promised in Diotima’s ascent is sudden only after ordered guidance, learning, and previous toil. The same word subsequently marks disruptive entrances and Alcibiades’ surprised recognition of Socrates. These repetitions invite comparison between contemplative culmination and dramatic interruption, but the word does not make all four events the same kind of revelation.
Places to read
Translation in this edition
The supplied edition calls attention to the recurrence. A lexical entry can record the echo without treating it as proof that Alcibiades is the beautiful itself or that an interruption fulfils Diotima’s teaching.
ἐξαίφνης (exaiphnēs)
exaiphnēs — Suddenly, marking an abrupt change in experience or narrative without itself identifying its cause.
- 210e — ἐξαίφνης. The properly prepared lover will suddenly see the beautiful.
- 210e — ἐξαίφνης κατόψεταί. The sudden seeing follows the described education and ordered contemplation.
- 212c — ἐξαίφνης. Knocking interrupts the response to Socrates’ speech.
- 212c — καὶ ἐξαίφνης. The revellers’ knocking suddenly interrupts the response to Socrates’ account.
- 213c — ἐξαίφνης. Alcibiades says Socrates habitually appears unexpectedly.
- 223b — ἐξαίφνης. A second crowd of revellers arrives abruptly.
Read: Suddenly.